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Sara Ridgeway lights Jewish menorah at Jessica Ridgeway memorial

By Megan Mitchell The Denver Post

Posted:
12/10/2012 12:01:00 AM MST

Updated:
12/10/2012 12:21:37 AM MST

Noah Smith holds a candle during a menorah lighting to celebrate Hanukkah and remember Jessica Ridgeway, to whom the event was dedicated, Sunday at Orchard Town Center in Westminster. Jessica's mother, Sarah Ridgeway, was invited to light the center candle. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

The mother of Jessica, the 10-year-old who was abducted from her Westminster neighborhood and slain in October, was flanked by a bundled bunch of family and friends, talking happily while cameras and curious people buzzed around her.

Rabbi Benjy Brackman, executive director of the Chabad of NW Metro Denver, invited Ridgeway, a Christian, to the 10th annual Menorah Lighting and Concert to light the center candle on the giant menorah in memory of her daughter.

"The only way you get rid of darkness is to light a candle and show that world the brightness of the candle," Brackman said. He said in this way Jessica would become a beacon of light for the community and never be forgotten.

Stephan Teske, Ridgeway's co-worker, said Ridgeway attended because she was moved by the gesture.

"It's a good representation of celebrating life in the Jewish religion," he said.

The center flame is traditionally used to light the other eight candles on the menorah through the eight days of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Sunday was night two.

Nearly 100 people of various religious backgrounds gathered outside during the ceremony, singing traditional Jewish children's songs and watching the lighting.

Westminster Mayor Nancy McNally stood with her arm around Ridgeway next to the menorah.

Ridgeway stepped forward and took a flaming tiki torch that Brackman handed her and reached up to light the center candle.

McNally said she remembered sitting with the Ridgeway family during Jessica's memorial service in October. "They said they don't want darkness; they want it to turn to light," McNally said.

Lighting the menorah with the community was the perfect occasion to create light from darkness, she said.

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